The Great Seducer (2018)

Rybka która uwiodła wędkarza.

Nie czytałam oryginału, więc obędzie się niestety bez porównań.

Fabuła "Wspaniałego Uwodziciela" zaczyna się od zapoznania nas z trójką głównych bohaterów.
Pięknej narcystycznej wiolonczelistki Soo Ji, "sexmaniaka" Se Joo (choć co on miał wspólnego z tym przydomkiem to ja nie wiem, gdyż nie spotkamy się ani razu z jego rzekomymi podbojami łóżkowymi) oraz przeprzystojnego podrywacza vel łamacza damskich serc Si Hyuna. Ich życie toczy się teoretycznie w przyziemny sposób jak na chaebolowskie dzieci przystało - szkoła, rodzice, wymagania, problemy i ich miłostki. Rutynę licealnego życia niejednokrotnie przełamują dokonując podbojów towarzyskich, pewni swojego nieodpartego uroku oraz splendoru popularności jaki nad nimi wisi. Se Joo jak Si Hyun uchodzą wręcz za mistrzów podrywu któremu nie oprze się dosłownie żadne zniewieściałe serduszko. Życie toczy się idealnie, dopóki....
Soo Ji zostaje odrzucona i sponiewierana przez narzeczonego (Yi Kyung). Sprowokowana upokarzającą sytuacją postanawia dokonać sowitej zemsty w "ich stylu" i podczas jednej z przyjęć biznesowych poznaje Tae Hee - pierwszą miłość Yi Kyunga. Trzej muszkieterowie rozpisują solidny plan podrywu do którego wyznaczony zostaje Si Hyun, celem rozkochania sobie do szaleństwa niczego nie spodziewającą się Tae Hee. Dalej domyślcie się co poszło nie tak.

Powiem szczerze, że pomysł może nie górnych lotów ale bardzo mi się spodobał. Od razu dawał poczucie jakiegoś dobrze rokującego romansu no i ta okładka...mmmm
Jak z jakiegoś dobrego poradnika do podrywu dla facetów. Chyba za dużo mi się w głowie zaprojektowało co mogłoby dobrego z tego wyjść ale z początku nie miałam w zasadzie uprzedzeń chociaż aktorstwo już na starcie kulało. I nie tylko przez samą Joy w roli Tae Hee. Postać Hye Jung i wielu innych ról drugoplanowych miało najwyraźniej robić za jakieś dopełniające fabułę tło.
W każdym razie..
Główny wątek Great Seducera zostaje solidnie doprawiony innymi melodramatami. Mamy nieodwzajemnioną miłość Se Joo, konflikty w przyjaźni, miłości rodziców te ukryte i te jawne, jakieś przeszłę wypadki i zbrodnie no i oczywiście znalazło się też miejsce na raka mózgu! :D Póki prym na ekranie wiódł miłosny podbój na Tae Hee było ciekawie, ale im bardziej lub im częściej pojawiały się momenty z postaciami drugoplanowymi i ich problemami tylekroć wszystko nagle w moim mniemaniu zwalniało. Może to też dlatego, że większość wątków dramatycznych strasznie tutaj hiperbolizowano w odczuwaniu. Ileż można rozwodzić się nad wzdychaniami matki Soo Ji, czy też samej Soo Ji jej depresyjnych momentów. Ileż ojca Si Hyuna który wlókł się potajemnie jak zbity pies za swoją ex miłością - ku ironii matce Tae Hee. Cały ten nieszczęśliwy czworokąt )bo liczmy jeszcze ojca Tae Hee) zjadł chyba 1/3 czasu emisyjnego a i tak nic konkretnego poza ubolewaniem z tego nie wyszło. Jeszcze lepszy w tragedii był tylko wypadek samochodowy Tae Hee który był zaledwie draśnięciem jej na poboczu a przeżywano go jakby co najmniej Tae Hee przefrunęła po nim gdzieś w śmiercionośne zaspy.
W moim odczuciu jeden melodramat, wręcz makjang.
Nie znajdziecie tu na pewno coś czym może tytuł lub okładka trąci czyli chociażby jakiś pocałunków, głębszych podrywów czy Broń Boże czegoś więcej. Pan główny podrywacz zaledwie raz pocałował swoją ofiarę i na tym jego specjalności się skończyły, o Se Joo to nawet nie wspomnę. To wszystko ironizuje cały zamysł fabularny, w wielu wątkach wręcz parodiuje. Po połowie już stracił wszelkie nadzieje. Resztę chciałam wytrwać dla samego zaliczenia..

Aktorstwo jak mówiłam słabe, a muzyka w ogóle nie zapada w pamięć, jakby jej nie było. Pamiętam że jakieś smęty leciały przy rozterkach sercowych. Zakończenie jak mam być szczera mnie przybiło. Happy end bez głębszego wytłumaczenia, po prostu para bez siebie nie mogła wytrzymać no i musieli się spiknąć po 5latach. Cóż.

Nie dziwię się ocenom że było słabo, aczkolwiek nie mam powodu strzelać piorunami w ten tytuł. Ktoś miał ochotę sklecić coś ciekawego z zapewne słynnego tytułu no i mamy co mamy. Próbujcie, ale wiele nie oczekujcie :)

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Cruel Intentions movie + Boys Over Flowers, made baby with Heirs= TEMPTED

LIKES:
Woo Do Hwan's acting was great; tears, steamy sexuality and good guy vibes. But his talent was under utilized for the sex appeal of his character.

DISLIKES:
WRITING: SUMMARY (No Spoilers){see after OVERALL for the SPOILERS explanation}:
In the beginning of the story, it caught my interest as they introduced the dark, extravagant life of the three friends: Si-Hyun (played by Woo Do Hwan), Soo-Ji (Moon Ga Young) and Se-Joo (Kim Min Jae). It showed us how the rich are privileged and yet there is negativity from family pressures. They created a fake persona and couldn’t be themselves, in order to survive. They hurt others, because their parents or siblings hurt them. Since they can’t take revenge on their parents, they play with other people’s feelings. Se-Joo is a womanizer, treating everything like a big joke. Si-Hyun toys with women’s affection. While Soo-ji gets pleasure in tormenting others.

Enter Tae Hee, who is supposed to be cynical about love, due to her parents and their subsequent divorce. She is the target of the game suggested by Soo-ji, to be seduced by Si-Hyun, before he breaks Tae Hee’s heart.

The story had potential to be deliciously devious with the right dose of wicked sexuality. They could’ve even added a modern twist by giving subtle hints of homosexuality between Si-Hyun and Se-Joo, for soft-core eroticism. Soo-Ji should’ve been doing a lot of her own seducing of guys outside of her friends, even playing a bit of a sociopath, to make her character more interesting. But poor writing and inconsistency with the characters derailed it from being a good melodrama.

There were too many unnecessary sub-plots with the other characters, including the parents. This made it a mess and things became tediously long. It needed more from the “teens”; telling lies, backstabbing, manipulation, incidental sexual liaisons with their targets, etc. The female lead was to be pretty on the outside and ugly on the inside. I tried to feel sorry for Soo-Ji, since she’s supposed to be an immature teenager, yet in the end I was just done with her. When focus shifted to her, I found it barely tolerable. She constantly used emotional blackmail, but it didn’t come across as believable.

I did like the character of Lee Se-Joo, but they under developed him. He had a sub-story that went no-where and added nothing to the plot. There was a limit to the chemistry between the males and females, with more chemistry between Si-Hyun and Se-Joo, than anyone else.

Too many extra characters and sub-stories, which took away from the main drama. The adult sub-stories were tiresome, with their selfish narcissism, to the point I skipped their parts towards the last ten episodes. The adults with their lovers, had no chemistry and only seemed to be seduced by greed and power. The usual rich parent formula failed.

I wasn’t happy how the show addressed the family abuse and mental health issues in many of the characters. Some of it could've even triggered viewers.
The “who-done-it” portion of the storyline, was just too easy to figure out.

ACTING:
It was my first time seeing Joy act. I felt she did the best she could with the given script, but the cuteness was too much. Her character, just like Moon Ga Young’s, had little growth. Moon Ga Young did her best too, but her acting skills couldn’t save the terrible writing.

OVERALL:
Overall it was an okay drama, but the ending felt rushed and some of the sub-stories were unfinished. It wasn’t as satisfying as they tried to make it, by using a 5 year time gap. The drama fell short, and I hated the shaking camera bits that were done to add tension or suspense (it gave me a migraine).




Specific Details with SPOILERS:

Soo-Ji:
First thing that was annoying & tested my patience by episode 8, was how Soo-Ji was constantly getting jealous of Si-Hyun and Tae Hee, even though it was her idea for him to seduce Tae Hee. Soo-Ji came across as a spoiled child having frequent tantrums. Her suicide attempts weren’t handled well by the writers/show and seemed more unnecessary than dramatic. The show simply dismissed it and made the person struggling through it, seem selfish. They could’ve handled the mental health aspect better.

Secondly Soo-Ji could’ve been a really strong and devilish character, but her development was botched by the writers. She was vicious at first, but then just pissy and depressed, making her character less effective. Even more silly is that her doctor-mother ignored the warning signs that her daughter has mental illness. The mother doesn’t even lock up her own medication, even after finding out her daughter took the medicine too.

Third: Soo-Ji’s character didn’t seduce anyone and barely teased Si-Hyun and Se-Joo.

Se-Joo:
His main roll was holding together the friendship between Soo-Ji and Si-Hyun. He helped them, more than they were there for him. That made the ending episodes, where Si-Hyun rushes to his aid, less believable.

The abuse inflicted on Se-Joo by his family, happened too often and made his character more pathetic than a victim.

Si-Hyun:
His seduction of Tae Hee was too short and easy. His seducing of the mother-model, was more believable. He needed to have more conquests before targeting Tae Hee, for us to believe he’s the great seducer.

Also watching Si-Hyun’s dad trying to get with Soo-Ji’s mom, was extra cringe.

Tae Hee:
She falls for Si-Hyun way too fast, for someone who is supposed to be cynical about love. Also she was supposed to be pure/truthful and loyal in her friendships. From the beginning she hides having read Si-Hyun’s DNA test. She believes everyones lies, instead of being open with Si-Hyun and listening to him. The whole “give me a pass” junk, was dumb because neither she nor Si-Hyun gave the other a pass when it came to lies or betrayal.

Throughout the drama, they made it seem like Tae Hee had a really bad accident which is what traumatized her psychologically and hence her memories of it were gone. But the accident they showed in the flashbacks was just her getting hit by the side mirror of the car, and she hurt her foot when falling down from the impact. The only reason she was in the ditch, is because she stood up to fast and got dizzy, then fell into it. The writers screwed up in creating this critical memory.

Other Characters:
The writers left Park Hye Jung’s relationship with Joo An unfinished/resolved. Also did Lee Ki Yeong get thrown in jail for his part in assaulting-attempted murder of Se-Joo and Si-Hyun? What happened with Go Kyung Ju (Tae Hee’s best friend). Did Park Hye Jung’s mother get caught for keeping her son from going to military service? So many unfinished sub-stories.

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Expected worse

First of all the hate this show got was definitely uncalled for. It's not very good but it's not the HORRIBLE MESS y'all made it out to be. I'm also confused why y'all hate Eun Tae Hee's character so much when she was the one that was wronged. Y'all should hate on those 3 besties instead since their actions in this show were quite unforgivable. Like the stuff they put my sister through??? Oh hell naw. I'm not even gonna lie, the only reason why I watched this show was because of Woo Do Hwan and Joy and they definitely were the best part of it. Also Mun Ka Young is one of my least favourite actresses so her playing that horrible human being definitely helped her case here. She was aggravating as hell. So were those weak ass guys Lee Se Joo and Kwon Shi Hyun. They were basically that mean girl's pets and had no mind of their own. With that said the first half of the show was actually entertaining but the back half was just infuriating to watch and kind of boring.

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I decided to watch this after seeing Woo-Do-hwan on The King: Eternal drama, soo I thought why not.

I think for me the story was a little messy, and a lot of like unnecessary drama as well! - I mean yes rich people and money and hide-outs! But yeah I don't know, I thought it could have been a little better!

I think my favourite was the trio, Si-yeon, Su-ji & Se-joo! - I wish they didn't like fight so much near the end, and also I wished, they would have stayed together as friends, I mean they pretty much were with each other through thick and thin and just because of a random girl, they just didn't work out?

I do think the actor Joy is pretty, but I didn't really like her character Tae-hae! I felt she was a bit too needy, or just a little annoying at times! - and I prefered her with shorter hair and not at the end, she just looked kinda different.

I do think I preferred if Si-yeon & Su-ji ended up together, cause I think they looked a lot better together, and they suited each other a lot more, since they literally went through ups and downs together! But I guess, not all the time that happens. But do in the end feel the story could have been better, it was okayyy in my own opinion!

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It could have been a great drama.
The actors were all incredible. I've read a lot of negative comments about Joy's acting so it was a great surprise.
My personal favorite was Moon Ga Young, this role was for her. She embodied the charisma and the complex personality of her character perfectly. I loved that it wasn't an all black/all white character depending of the story advancement but really a constant complexity.
However, even though the idea of the story was good, as the plot was progressing it seems like each event were botched.
For instance, the parent's story and Sejoo's background.
They did attempt a character development with Sooji and Sihyun. We indeed saw how their characters evolved as their relationship change and as they both realise nothing turned out as expected. Nevertheless, this evolution wasn't an improvement but it seems like the end was displayed as such.
The Great Seducer is aesthetically appealing (actors with a good performance, music, decors...) but the development of the story, as well as the character's one, was lacking. That's why overall it was a disappointment.

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Cruel Intentions but for kids

When I saw this show pop-up on Netflix as a recommendation I was excited to watch it, the trailer made the show out to be something different from your average romance kdrama. As I watched the first few episodes I realised what it was about - Cruel Intentions - or at least the book that that film was based on. Now although I wouldn't consider Cruel Intentions the greatest film of all time, it's a pretty decent film. So I became pretty invested in the show and was interested to see where they would take the story and characters and how similar or different it would be from the film.

They took it everywhere! With the hundreds of side character stories that were happening all at once.

There was so much going on storywise you really had to focus if you wanted to keep up.

The whole bet and revenge plan had no reason to it and it was all very... tame? Especially following the 'outing' of their teacher's affair at the beginning of the drama. The actors themselves seemed ok and the chemistry between them was there and that was probably the saving grace of this show but I don't think they were given the best direction or story to work with.

I feel like I've been pretty lenient with the ratings I have given, I wouldn't recommend this drama or give it a rewatch.

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idk dude

listen. this show could have been so good.
while i really disliked the adults, and tae hee, the main trio was so good in the beggining.
i loved soo ji and se joo. their characters were very entertaining (on their own and as a ship) and they had pretty good chemistry. i also loved soo ji and shi hyun together, bc their chemistry was off the charts. i enjoyed their scenes and the whole vibe. and then tae hee's character had screen time. oh boy. in the beggining it wasnt that bad but the more screen time the blander and more boring their (tae hee and shi hyun) scenes got. it was always the same pattern. they have fun together, they fight, make up, have fun together, make up etc... they brought nothing interesting and their dynamic was boring af. after like 6 eps i started skimming through their scenes and after 15 eps i just started skipping them altogether. i didnt miss much, honestly. so i just watched soo ji' scenes and se joo's. bc they became the only fuckin ineteresting characters.
its pretty common to have adults/their storylines in dramas, i always skip them so i dont really have anything to say abt that.
not gonna say anything abt the ending, it was poo. they mistreated the best characters. this show could've been better if it was just the main trio, like tae hee character did nothing. i would've really loved if it was a love traingle between the trio. so yeah. watch only soo ji's and se joo's scenes if you want a lil darker vibe, and if you want a bland drama nothingness watch tae hee's and shi hyun scenes lmao.

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Missing the feel good factor

This was a messed up melodrama with more tears and negativity than I expected. Many of the characters are hardly likeable. Their thoughts and actions are despicable, small minded, selfish and short sighted, but the director has really done a good job of bringing out why they would think and behave that way. The angst, jealousy, pettiness, rage, self pity and loneliness of the leads were well brought out. Would have liked more feel good friendship scenes in the beginning so that the bitterness of the final episodes were balanced out. A redeeming factor is that all the leads are easy on the eyes, and since they are well off, the aesthetics even indoors was pretty.
I didn't like how the parent characters didn't get the usual closure we expect from kdramas but I guess they wanted to keep it closer to reality. What happened to Sae Joo's mom lying in the hospital? How did the parents wedding get cancelled amicably? Did the father and son finally get along after both recovered? There are a lot of dragged out episodes where simple honest communication among friends and parent-child would have brought clarity and peace of mind to both sides, so this made it frustrating for me as a viewer.
The shortness of the episodes kept me watching an episode now and then until it got over. Definitely not rewatch material, but a one time watch, first melo genre for me. I now feel like watching a typical romcom with likeable characters and all the cliches possible (butterfly moments, umbrellas, back hugs, cute jealousy, arm grabs and heartfelt confessions), just to erase out the negative emotions brought out by this melodrama and remind me why I started watching kdramas in the first place!

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Not satisfied

Ok I know it has been 2-3 years since this drama aired and I had been ignoring reviewing this drama but now I just cannot bear it. Ugh!! Ok so first of all there is something known as "karma" if there is a girl with parent issues who was bullied when she was young and then saved by two handsome boys-i get it -anythings possible, but still if she was trying to play with someone Innocent's heart ,like literally ITS NOT HER FAULT if he(the one whose first love is tae hee) snubbed u, did she tell him to snub u? And literally it's like she's some kind of a queen playing with two boys' hearts idk even If this is the evil kind of drama, at least give some real suffering to Soo ji and the main leads' relationship is effed up, the ost's cool and that's it. I would never rewatch this thing, becus of frustration, I have yeeted my phone and gotten it some fresh cracks(now old)on its screen. Anywho it's my personal opinion and it doesn't matter, I just feel frustrated with Soo Ji's assy character, I knew I shouldn't have watched this in the first place if i didn't wanted this shit and stuff but I am free to criticize this drama as much as I like (as long it's not directly hitting on the cast or hurting someone blah blah) and THERE IS NOTHING wrong with joy (idk why u guys hating her like dude , hate the character, the fucking character, not her, also correct me if am wrong , but are people doing this cus of the rumour that moon ga young and woo do Hwan were in love or is this just genuine hate-?) Anyhow
Thank you for your time?

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I think this drama suffers from an identity crisis. It's set up to be a dark story about seduction and playing with danger, but soon enough it just turns into a regular romantic melodrama. It ends up fading into nothingness as it has too many dark secrets and unlikable, hateful characters to be a nice romance, but it's also too fluffy to be a decente dark story.

Tae Hee starts off being a nice female protagonist, seeming strong, independent and level-headed. But as the story progresses she becomes just a love-sick, pathetic girl. Honestly I don't understand how someone like her would be with Shi Hyun when he's constantly lying and humiliating her in front of his friends. The worst part is that she's the one who runs back to him all the time like a lap dog and forgives him even though he does like the bare minimum to apologize.

There's not much to say bout Shi Hyun, other than I think he'd fit better in an actual rom-com. Soo Ji is just a terrible person. She's an egoist and a hypocrite, which I think makes her fit perfectly the initial dark theme of the plot, but becomes basically unbearable as the story transitions into more romance. Se Joo was the only one I would bear see on the screen, he was interesting and he at least had some common sense unlike everyone else.

To sum it up, this drama isn't terrible, but it didn't deliver what it originally promised, so that's why many people (including me) were left annoyed and disappointed.

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Even though I'm 2 years behind, I would like to give justice to this Melodrama!

So, I don't know if anybody would read this or ever see this, but if you do happen to scroll across to this review, I promise I'll make it worthwhile.

Back in 2018, I started watching this drama, but I was still new to the whole k-drama world and had no clue of a melodrama and had to learn it the hard way. Around ep. 17 I stopped watching the drama, partially because I didn't feel like waiting a week for the next episode, and 2, I was just unable to grasp the story's theme. But now, with my eyes still swollen, I finished the drama 2 years later and I decided to check the reviews, and I am confused as to how you could rate this show so low.

Story- Yes I know it is an adaptation and I watched the whole drama without knowing it was one, all I can say is adaptations usually are not exacccttlyy the same, and whichever plot the adaptation was, I'm sure the great seducer made up a pretty good plot as best as they can. I love the story. even though near the end we still didn't get some answers to the side character's stories, I believe they told the story well in 32 or 16 complete episodes. Also, people get mixed up with the meaning of The Great Seducer as him "seducing as many women as he can" but I believe they wanted to represent him as a man who always gets his way with women without any effort, but when Tae Hee comes around that changes for him, causing him to fall in love. There's not a lot of popularity or likeability with melodramas because you have to use your feelings to watch the story, it's not meant for understanding but to just tell a story of tragedy, which this show did a great job of doing.

Acting/cast- I love all of the main characters and the side characters, Kyung Joo was a headache for me because I couldn't bear a friend who doesn't read the room or just talks to much and ends up telling things she has no business lol, but she did contribute to the show so I'm not really bothered. I've heard there was a slander on Joy for her acting, which is probably because people hate the fact of idols acting but she actually did well. Especially when I first watched it without knowing anythinggg about k-pop and k-dramas, she really portrayed her character and became one of my favorites over time. As so for the other actors, there's no doubt about how much I love them, I still watch many of their other dramas today and keep track, so it's a 10/10 for me.

Music- There were two main songs: with you and missed connections. I listened to them back to back and even for my own events through life. Other than that, the classical music that played at emotional points in the story was just *chefs kiss*

rewatch value- I rated this low because even though the story was good, I just do not want to sit through this painful melodrama again, even though it ended well lol. I just can't bother to go through certain scenes because I'm just too over-sensitive lol. Just a personal preference though.

Overall- THE SHOW IS GOOD. Not one of the greatest but as a starting MELODRAMA, I'd strongly recommend it. Definitely not as a first k-drama though, I just feel like it's a different side to k-dramas, like k-drama with a hint of bitterness to it. So not good for a first or starting drama, but good when you get tired of the regular k-drama and want to break off into something a bit darker.

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